Kitabı oku: «The Redemption of Althalus», sayfa 10

‘That’s a difference of nineteen pieces of gold. He isn’t worth that much!’ Her voice rose again.

‘He’s prime stock. Your Highness. When I reach Ansu, I’ll put him out front for the mine-owners to look at. They’ll buy the lot just to get him. I know good merchandise when I see it. I could sell cripples if I could wave Eliar in the buyer’s face.’

‘What’s it like down there in those salt mines?’ she asked. ‘How would you describe them?’

Althalus feigned a shudder. ‘I’d really rather not, Your Highness,’ he replied. ‘Over to the east, in Wekti, Plakand and Equero, criminals beg to be executed when they’re sentenced to be sold into the salt mines as a punishment for murder and the like. Being sent into those mines is far worse than a death sentence. If a slave’s unlucky, he’ll last for ten years down there. The lucky ones die in just a few months.’

‘Why don’t we talk about that?’ Andine almost purred.

Althalus described conditions in the salt mines at some length, exaggerating only slightly. He mentioned the prevalence of blindness, the frequent cave-ins – during which lucky slaves were crushed to death. He covered the darkness, the perpetual chill, the continuous choking dust, and dwelt at some length on the burly men with whips. ‘All in all,’ he concluded, ‘murderers and the like are very wise to prefer hanging to the mines.’

‘Then you’d say that being sent to the salt mines is a fate worse than death?’ Andine said, her lovely eyes all aglow.

‘Oh, yes,’ Althalus assured her, ‘much, much worse.’

‘I do believe we can strike a bargain here, Master Althalus,’ she decided. ‘A hundred gold wheats for the lot, you say?’

‘That was my offer, Your Highness.’

‘Done, then – if you’ll throw in your cat.’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘I want this lovely little cat. If you let me have her, we’ve struck a bargain.’

CHAPTER TEN

‘Do as she says, Althalus’, Emmy’s thought cut through his startled dismay.

‘I most certainly will not!’ he shot back.

‘You don’t really think she can keep me here, do you? Make her throw in the Knife, though.’

‘How am I going to manage that?’

‘I don’t care. Think something up. That’s what I’m paying you for, remember? Oh, one other thing. When you get the Knife from her, just tuck it under your belt and don’t look at it.’

‘Why not?’

‘Can’t you ever do as you’re told without asking all these questions? I don’t want you to look at the Knife until after we’re out of here. Just do it and don’t argue.’

He gave up. ‘Yes, dear,’ he said silently.

‘What’s the problem, Master Althalus?’ Andine asked, gently stroking the purring cat in her lap.

‘You took me by surprise, Your Highness,’ he replied. ‘I’m really very fond of my cat.’ He scratched his chin. ‘This puts the whole transaction on a different footing. The slaves are just merchandise; including Emmy changes things. I think I’ll need something in addition to the slaves before I’d be willing to part with her.’

‘Such as?’

‘Oh, I don’t know.’ He pretended to think about it. ‘It really ought to be some personal possession of yours. I’m much too fond of my cat to include her in some crass commercial transaction. I’d have trouble living with myself if I just sold her outright.’

‘You’re a strange man, Master Althalus.’ Arya Andine looked at him with her luminous eyes. ‘What sort of possession of mine would satisfy your delicate sensibilities?’

‘It doesn’t have to be anything of great value, Your Highness. I didn’t pay anything for Emmy. I just picked her up along the side of the road a few years ago. She’s very good at worming her way into someone’s affections.’

‘Yes, I noticed that.’ Andine impulsively lifted Emmy up to hold her against her own face, ‘I just love this cat,’ she said in that throbbing voice of hers. ‘Choose, Master Althalus. Name your price.’

Althalus laughed. ‘You really shouldn’t say things like that, Your Highness,’ he advised her. ‘If I weren’t an honest businessman, I could take advantage of your sudden attachment to my cat.’

‘Name your price. I must have her.’

‘Oh, I don’t know – anything, I suppose. How about that Knife you’ve been toying with? You seem to have a certain attachment to it. That’s all that matters, really.’

‘Choose something else.’ Andine’s eyes grew troubled.

‘Ah – no, Your Highness, I don’t think so. My cat for your Knife. You won’t value her if you haven’t given up something that you cherish for her.’

‘You bargain very hard, Master Althalus,’ she accused.

Emmy reached out one soft paw and gently stroked the Arya’s alabaster cheek.

‘Oh, dear,’ Andine said, pressing Emmy against her face. ‘Take the Knife, Master Althalus. Take it. I don’t care. Take anything you want. I must have her.’ She seized up the laurel-leaf dagger and tossed it to the marble floor in front of the dais.

‘If it please Your Highness, I’ll see to the details,’ the silvery-haired Dhakan said smoothly. Quite obviously, Dhakan was the one who really ran things here in Osthos.

‘Thank you, Lord Dhakan,’ Andine said, rising to her feet with Emmy cradled possessively in her arms.

‘You be a good cat now, Em,’ Althalus said, bending to pick up the Knife. ‘Remember – no biting.’

‘Does she bite?’ Andine asked.

‘Sometimes,’ Althalus replied, tucking the Knife under his belt. ‘Not very hard, though. Usually it’s when she gets carried away while we’re playing. Snap her on the nose with your fingernail and she’ll quit. Oh, I should probably warn Your Highness: don’t be too surprised if she decides to give your face a bath. Her tongue’s a bit rough, but you get used to it after a while.’

‘What’s her favorite food?’

‘Fish, of course.’ Althalus bowed. ‘It’s been a pleasure doing business with Your Highness,’ he said.

The clinking of the long chain started to irritate Althalus before he and the ten young Arums even reached the main gate of Osthos. It was a continual reminder that he wasn’t alone any more, and he didn’t really like that.

Once they were outside the city, Althalus sent a searching thought back toward the palace. This was the farthest he’d been from Emmy in the last twenty-five centuries, and he didn’t like that either.

‘I’m busy right now, Althalus,’ her thought came back to him. ‘Don’t bother me. Go to that place where we made the coins and wait for me there.’

‘Do you have any idea of how long you’ll be?’

‘Sometime tonight. Keep Eliar, and turn the others loose.’

‘I just paid a lot of money for them, Em.’

‘Easy come, easy go. Point them toward Arum and send them home. Get them out from underfoot.’

The walls of Osthos were still in sight when Althalus turned his horse aside and rode across an open field to the small grove of oak trees where he and Emmy had converted the five bars of gold. As his horse plodded across the field, Althalus prudently manipulated his hearing and directed it back toward his slaves to hear what they were up to.

‘– only one man,’ he heard Eliar whisper. ‘As soon as we get away from the city, we’ll all jump on him at once and kill him. Pass it on to the others. Tell them to wait for my signal. Up until then, we’d all better act sort of meek. Once we’ve got him alone, we’ll get un-meek.’

Althalus smiled to himself. ‘I wonder why it took him so long’, he murmured to himself. ‘That notion should have come to him hours ago.’ Obviously, he was going to have to take some steps here to discourage certain loyalties.

They reached the grove of trees, and Althalus dismounted. ‘All right, gentlemen’, he said to his captives, ‘I want you to sit down and listen. You’re right on the verge of making some hasty decisions, and I think there’s something you should know first.’ He took the key to their chains and freed the young man at the end of the line. ‘Come out here in front of the others’, he told him. ‘You and I are going to demonstrate something for your friends.’

‘You’re going to kill me, aren’t you?’ the boy asked in a trembling voice.

‘After what I just paid for you? Don’t be silly.’ Althalus led the boy out to the center of the clearing. ‘Watch very closely,’ he instructed the others. Then he held his hand out, palm up, toward the shaking boy. ‘Dheu’, he said, raising his hand slowly upward.

The slave gave a startled cry as he rose up off the ground. He continued to rise, going higher and higher into the air as Althalus rather over-dramatically continued to lift his hand. After a few moments the boy appeared to be only a tiny speck high above them.

‘Now then,’ Althalus said to his gaping slaves, ‘what lesson have we just learned? What do you suppose would happen to our friend up there if I let go of him?’

‘He’d fall?’ Eliar asked in a choked voice.

‘Very good, Eliar. You’ve got a quick mind. And what’d happen to him when he came back down to earth?’

‘It’d probably kill him, wouldn’t it?’

‘It goes a long way past “probably”, Eliar. He’d splatter like a dropped melon. That’s our lesson for today, gentlemen. You don’t want to cross me. You want to go a long way to avoid crossing me. Does anybody need any further clarification?’

They all shook their heads violently.

‘Good. Since you all understand just exactly how things stand, I suppose we can bring your friend down again.’ Althalus said, ‘Dhreu,’ in the same way he’d said it to his shoe back in the House at the End of the World, slowly lowering his hand as he said it.

The boy descended to the ground and collapsed, blubbering incoherently.

‘Oh, stop that,’ Althalus told him. ‘I didn’t hurt you.’ Then he went down the chain, unlocking each slave’s iron collar, leaving only Eliar still chained up. Then he pointed north. ‘Arum’s off in that direction, gentlemen. Pick up your distracted friend there and go home. Oh, when you get back, tell Chief Albron that I’ve found the Knife I was looking for and that Eliar’s going to be coming with me. Albron and I can settle accounts on that somewhere on down the line.’

‘What’s that all about?’ Eliar demanded.

‘Your chief and I have a sort of agreement. You’ll be working for me for a while.’ Althalus glanced at the others. ‘I told you to go home’, he said. ‘Why haven’t you left yet?’

They were running the last time he saw them.

‘Aren’t you going to unchain me?’ Eliar asked.

‘Let’s hold off on that for a little while.’

‘If you’ve got an agreement with my chief, you don’t have to keep me chained up like this. I’ll honor his word.’

‘The chain makes it easier for you, Eliar. As long as you’re chained up, you won’t have to struggle with any difficult moral decisions. Do you want something to eat?’

‘No’, the boy answered sullenly. Eliar appeared to be very good at sullen. Aside from his pouty expression, he was a fairly handsome young man, tall and blond-haired. Despite his youth, he had fairly bulky shoulders, and his kilt revealed powerful legs. It was easy to see why the other young Arums in Sergeant Khalor’s detachment had accepted this young fellow as their leader.

Althalus looped the boy’s chain around an oak tree, locked it securely and then stretched out on the leafy ground. ‘You might as well catch a few winks,’he advised, ‘I expect we’ll have a long way to go and not much time, so we’ll be a little short on sleep in the not too distant future.’

‘Where are we going?’ Eliar asked as curiosity evidently won out over sullen.

‘I haven’t got the foggiest idea’, Althalus admitted. ‘I’m sure Emmy will tell us when she gets here, though.’

‘Your cat?’

‘Things aren’t always what they appear to be, Eliar. Go to sleep.’

‘Can I have some bread or something?’

‘I thought you said you weren’t hungry.’

‘I changed my mind. I really could eat something.’

Althalus called up a loaf of bread and tossed it to his captive.

‘How did you do that?’ Eliar exclaimed.

‘It’s just a little trick I picked up a few years back. It’s no great thing.’

‘That’s the first time I’ve ever seen anybody do it. You’re not exactly like other people, are you?’

‘Not very much, no. Eat your supper and go to sleep, Eliar.’ Then Althalus settled back and drifted off to sleep.

Emmy ghosted silently into the oak grove not long after midnight and found Althalus just waking up. ‘Aren’t we being a bit irresponsible, pet?’ she chided him.

‘About what?’

‘I sort of thought you’d be keeping an eye on Eliar.’

‘He’s not going anyplace, Em – not unless he plans to take that tree with him.’

‘Did you have any trouble persuading his friends to leave?’

‘No, not really. They were scheming a bit on our way here, but then I showed them that it wasn’t a good idea.’

‘Oh? How?’

‘I picked one at random and did the same thing to him that we did to Pekhal a few weeks ago. They got my point almost immediately. Then I unchained them and told them all to go home. They left in quite a hurry.’

‘Show-off.’

‘I know the way Arums think, Em. They’re intensely loyal, so I had to do something spectacular enough to dispel that loyalty. I didn’t think we’d want them lurking back in the bushes watching for a chance to ambush us. I managed to get my point across to them.’

‘Have you got the Knife?’

He patted the Knife-hilt protruding from his belt. ‘Right here,’ he replied.

‘Come out into the moonlight,’ she told him, leading the way out of the grove.

‘What are we doing?’

‘You’re going to read the Knife.’

‘I take my orders from you, Em, not from this antique.’

‘Just a precaution, Althalus. The Knife’ll make sure you don’t lose interest along the way.’

‘What’s the matter? Don’t you trust me?’

‘Trust you?’ Her laugh was sardonic.

‘That wasn’t very nice, Em.’

‘Just take the Knife out and read it, Althalus. Let’s get on with this.’

He drew the Knife out from under his belt and held it out in the moonlight. The inscription engraved on the blade was complex and very formal with interlocking lines that twined around each other. The writing was not the distinctly separated pictographs Althalus had seen in the Book, but seemed somehow to flow together. He had no difficulty picking out one single word, however, since it glowed with a pale light.

‘What does it say?’ Emmy asked intently.

‘Seek,’ he answered promptly.

There was a soft, musical sound that seemed to soar higher and higher, enclosing, enveloping, almost caressing him. It was so beautiful that it brought sudden tears to his eyes.

‘And now you are mine,’ Emmy gloated.

‘I already was, Em. Is the Knife really singing?’

‘Oh, yes.’

‘What for?’

‘To let me know that you’ve been chosen. And, of course, that you’ll do exactly as I tell you to do.’ She gave him a sly look. ‘Sit, Althalus,’ she said.

He immediately sat down.

‘Stand up.’

He scrambled to his feet. ‘Stop this, Emmy!’ he said sharply.

‘Dance.’

He began hopping around. ‘I’m going to get you for this, Em!’ he threatened.

‘No, you won’t. You can stop dancing now. I just wanted to show you what the Knife can do. You’ll be able to do the same sort of thing with it – just in case Eliar or any of the others we’ll pick up later start getting out of hand.’

‘That could come in handy.’ He looked even more closely at the Knife-blade. ‘That one word is all I can make out. It jumps right out of the middle of those other squiggles.’

‘The other “squiggles” are intended for others.’

‘Why can’t I read them?’

‘Nobody can read it all, Althalus. Some of those words were intended for people who lived thousands of years ago, and others are there to be read by people who won’t even be born for several thousand more. Our current crisis isn’t the only one in the history of the world, you know.’

‘It’s enough to get my attention. Did it tell you where we go next?’

‘That’ll come after Eliar reads his instructions. Everything in its proper time and place.’

‘Anything you say, dear.’ He frowned slightly. ‘Let’s see if I’ve got this straight. Nobody except certain people can read the Knife, right?’

‘Exactly.’

‘Everybody else just sees those squiggles that look like some meaningless decoration?’

‘Didn’t I already say that?’

‘What would happen if I showed it to Ghend – or Pekhal, or Khnom?’

‘The screams would probably be very loud. The sight of the Knife causes unbearable pain to the agents of Daeva.’

‘Well, now,’ he said, grinning. ‘Maybe I’d better not use the Knife to cut bacon with, then.’

‘You wouldn’t!’

‘Only teasing, Em. That Knife’s going to be very useful, I think. I believe I’ll keep it very close.’

‘Sorry, pet. You aren’t the one who’s supposed to carry it.’

‘Who is?’

‘Probably Eliar.’

‘Are you absolutely sure I can control him? He is a professional killer, Em, so the first thing he’s likely to do if I hand him the Knife is stab me in the belly with it.’

‘There aren’t really any absolutes in life, Althalus.’

‘Oh, thanks, Em,’ he said sarcastically.

‘It’s a safe wager. The chance that he’ll kill you is about the same as the one for the sun coming up in the west this morning.’

‘I suppose I’d risk a little money on that one. Why don’t we wake him up and have him read to us?’

‘Let him sleep. After he reads the Knife, we’ll find out where we’re supposed to go next, and we’ll have to leave immediately. Let’s not start wandering around in the dark.’

He shrugged. ‘You’re the one in charge, Em.’ Then he looked at her curiously. ‘What did you do to Andine to bring her around? She didn’t really want to sell Eliar to me.’

‘I persuaded her to love me more than she hated him.’

‘I thought you couldn’t do that sort of thing out here.’

‘I didn’t create her love, pet. All I did was encourage it. Andine’s very young and very passionate. She loves – and hates – with her blood and bones, and she loves even more intensely than she hates. All I had to do to unleash her love was to be adorable. I’m an expert at that, if you’ll recall.’

‘I still think you’re cheating, Em.’

‘No, not really. Andine’s very pretty, and she smells nice. She’s soft and warm, and that voice of hers throbs like a bell. She’s very easy to love, and she responds to love with love of her own. I didn’t cheat her, Althalus. I did love her – and I still do.’

‘I thought you were supposed to love only me.’

‘What a ridiculous idea. Just because I love her, it doesn’t mean that I love you less. My love is boundless, you know.’

‘But now you’ve managed to sneak away from her, and that means that I’ve swindled her out of Eliar, the Knife and you – all in the same day. I really think we should get out of here, Em – almost immediately.’

‘She won’t wake up until morning; I’ve seen to that. When she does wake up, the first thing she’ll do is search her whole palace for me. The idea of sending out her soldiers won’t come to her until later.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Trust me.’

Eliar woke up just before dawn, and he’d evidently forgotten that he was securely attached to the tree, because he started struggling with his chain before he was fully awake.

‘Stop that!’ Althalus barked sharply. ‘You’ll hurt yourself.’

Eliar quit fighting. He held up one of his wrists and jingled the chain. ‘You don’t need to keep me locked up any more,’ he said. ‘I thought it over last night, and if you really do have an agreement with my chief, I’ll do what you tell me to do. If you’re lying about it, you’ll have to answer to him.’

‘Now you’re starting to make some sense,’ Althalus said approvingly. ‘I thought I might have to rattle your teeth a little bit before you started to get the point.’

‘I’m a good soldier, and I follow my chief’s orders. I don’t have to get any points or understand anything. I just have to do what I’m told to do.’

‘I think we’ll get along just fine’, Althalus said. ‘Hold out your hands. Let’s get rid of those silly chains.’

Eliar held out his wrists, and Althalus freed him.

Eliar stood up, stretching and yawning. ‘I didn’t sleep too well,’ he said. ‘Those stupid chains jingled and rattled every time I moved. What am I supposed to call you? Sergeant, maybe? I won’t call you “Master”, no matter what you do to me.’

If you ever call me “Master”, I’ll braid all your fingers and toes together. My name’s Althalus. Why don’t you call me that?’

‘Is that really your name? There’s an old story in our clan about a man named Althalus.’

‘I know. Chief Albron thought it was just a coincidence, but he was wrong.’ Althalus made a wry face. ‘My name’s about the only part of the story your people got right. The rest of it’s the biggest lie I’ve heard in my whole life – and I’ve heard some very big lies in my time. Let’s get it right out into the open, Eliar. I am the one who robbed Gosti Big Belly about twenty-five hundred years ago, but Gosti didn’t have any gold in his strongroom, just copper and a little brass. He wanted people to believe that he was the richest man in the world, so he spread some wild lies about how much gold I’d stolen from him. You wouldn’t believe how much trouble that caused me.’

‘Nobody can live that long,’ the boy scoffed.

‘I didn’t think so myself, but Emmy cured me of that. Let’s stick to the point here. Can you read?’

‘Warriors don’t waste their time on that nonsense.’

‘There’s something you have to read.’

‘I just told you that I don’t know how, Althalus. You’ll have to read it to me.’

‘It won’t work if we do it that way.’ Althalus took the Knife out from under his belt and held it out to Eliar. He pointed at the complex engraving on the blade. ‘What does this say?’ he asked.

‘I can’t read. I told you that.’

‘Look at it, Eliar. You can’t read it if you don’t look.’

Eliar looked at the leaf-shaped blade, and he jerked his head back, startled. ‘It says “Lead”!’ he exclaimed. ‘I can actually read it!’ Then he shrank back as the song of the Knife touched him.

‘Pretty, isn’t it?’ Althalus said.

Emmy had been sitting nearby, watching. She rose and came over to where they were seated. She looked very closely at Eliar, who was still staring at the Knife with a befuddled expression. ‘Tell him to do something, Althalus,’ she suggested. ‘Let’s make sure that you can control him before you give him the Knife.’

Althalus nodded. ‘Stand up, Eliar,’ he said.

The boy immediately scrambled to his feet. He swayed a bit and put one hand to the side of his head. ‘It made me a little dizzy,’ he confessed.

‘Dance,’ Althalus told him.

Eliar started to jig, his feet pattering on the ground.

‘Stop.’

Eliar quit dancing.

‘Put both hands up over your head.’

‘Why are we doing this?’ the boy asked, raising his hands.

‘Just making sure that it works. You can put your hands down. Did you notice anything peculiar just now?’

‘You kept telling me to do things that were sort of silly,’ Eliar replied.

‘If they seemed silly, why did you do them?’

‘I’m a soldier, Althalus. I always do what the man in charge tells me to do. If he tells me to do silly things, he’s the one who’s silly, not me.’

‘That sort of takes a lot of the fun out of this, doesn’t it, Em?’ Althalus said aloud. ‘Did the Knife force Eliar to jump around, or was it just his training?’

Eliar gave Emmy a surprised look. ‘How did your cat get away from Andine?’ he asked curiously.

‘She’s sort of sneaky.’

‘Andine’s going to be very angry about that. Maybe we should leave in sort of a hurry – right after breakfast.’

‘Are you hungry?’

‘I’m always hungry, Althalus.’

‘Why don’t we eat, then?’ Althalus held the Knife out to the boy. ‘Here. You’re the one who’s supposed to carry this. Tuck it under your belt and don’t lose it.’

Eliar put his hands behind his back. ‘You should probably know that I was planning to kill you last night before we got to know each other. You might want to think it over a little before you just hand me back my knife like that.’

‘You aren’t going to try to kill me now, though, are you?’

‘No. Not now.’

‘Why not?’

‘You’re the man in charge, Althalus. Your arrangement with Chief Albron sort of makes you my sergeant. A good soldier never tries to kill his sergeant.’

‘Then I haven’t got a thing to worry about. Take the Knife, Eliar, and let’s eat.’

‘What a great idea,’ Eliar said enthusiastically, tucking the Knife under his belt.

‘Bacon? Or maybe ham?’

‘Whichever one you can make the quickest.’

Althalus made some ham and a loaf of black bread. Then he produced a very large cup of milk.

Eliar started to eat as if he hadn’t had anything for a week.

Althalus made more. ‘How long can he keep this up?’ he silently asked Emmy.

‘I’m not really certain,’ her reply came back. She watched Eliar eat with a slightly bemused look in her large green eyes. ‘See if you can distract him enough to get him to show me the Knife. I need to find out where we’re supposed to go next.’

‘Eliar,’ Althalus said, ‘you can keep chewing, but Emmy needs to take a quick look at your Knife.’

Eliar mumbled something.

‘Don’t talk with your mouth full,’ Althalus told him. ‘Just take the Knife out from under your belt and show it to her.’

Eliar shifted the chunk of ham he’d been eating to his left hand, wiped the grease off his right hand on the grass, and drew out his Knife. Still chewing, he held the Knife out to Emmy.

She glanced at it briefly. ‘Awes,’ she said.

‘Isn’t it in ruins?’ Althalus asked.

‘So?’

‘Just thought I’d mention it, that’s all. I’ll go saddle my horse.’

Emmy had gone back to watching Eliar eat. ‘There’s no real hurry, Althalus,’ her silent response sounded slightly amused. ‘From the look of things, our boy here’s just getting started.’